WASHINGTON -
Lockheed Martin and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) will attempt to resurrect the
long-dormant Athena series of small-satellite launchers under an arrangement
announced by the companies Thursday.

The upgraded
Athena 1c and Athena
2c rockets will feature the same Castor 120 solid rocket motors as their
predecessors, but use the newly developed Castor 30 motor for their upper
stage, the companies said in a written announcement. The original Athena
vehicles used the Orbus 21D motor built by the former Chemical Systems Division
of United Technologies Corp.

The new
Athena vehicles will be used to launch payloads weighing up to 3,775 pounds (1,712
kg) into low Earth orbit and could be available for launches starting in 2012, ATK
and Lockheed officials said in a statement.

The rockets
can be launched from several spaceports in the United States, including the
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, Kodiak
Launch Complex in Alaska, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and the
Wallops Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island in Virginia.

Lockheed
Martin Space Systems of Denver developed the original Athena 1 and Athena 2
rockets in the 1990s to launch small payloads for government and commercial
customers. However, the market did not materialize as expected and the company
stopped offering the vehicles in the early part of the next decade.

The Athena
rockets flew seven times, with two failures. Among the successes was the
December 1998 launch of NASA?s Lunar
Prospector mission aboard the three-stage Athena 2 rocket.

ATK Space
Systems of Magna, Utah, will be responsible for providing the motors for the
upgraded Athena vehicles, along with other structures, integration and support.
The solid-fueled Castor 30 was developed for Orbital Sciences Corp.?s planned Taurus
2 medium-class rocket and has been tested on the ground, the press release
said. The Castor 120 has been used on Dulles, Va.-based Orbital?s Taurus 1
rocket in addition to the original Athena line.

Lockheed
Martin will be responsible for mission management, payload integration and
launch operations of the Athena vehicles, the company said in an announcement.

Athena?s
target market is currently served by Orbital with its Pegasus, Taurus 1 and
Minotaur family of vehicles, and by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of Hawthorne,
Calif., with its Falcon
1E rocket.

?The new
Athena family will fill an industry need for lift capability in this payload
range,? Scott Lehr, vice president and general manager of strategic and
commercial systems at ATK Aerospace Systems, said in a statement.